Communist Party of India (CPI) cadres and activists heckled Cabinet Ministers during the ‘Bus Yatra’ organised by the ruling party to showcase its ‘principles of social justice adopted by the State government’, and said such publicity measures would prove to be of no help in winning people’s confidence.
Addressing reporters on Sunday, the party’s State secretary K. Ramakrishna questioned the need for the Ministers to take out the time for a Statewide bus tour. “Had Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy empowered the Ministers to work for the people, there would have been no need for such a tour,” he remarked.
“The Ministers do not wield any control over their respective portfolios. The Home Minister does not have the power to even transfer a police constable,” Mr. Ramakrishna alleged, adding that the entire Cabinet, barring a few, were ‘puppets’. “What kind of social justice is this?” the CPI leader said.
The Minister wondered what kind of social justice was prevailing in the State when the renaming of a district could trigger largescale violence. “When the government did not call for objections while naming districts after N.T. Rama Rao, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Sathya Sai Baba, why should it do so only when a district is being named after Ambedkar?” he asked.
The CPI leader dared the Ministers to join him for a debate on social justice, corruption and atrocities which he alleged were being committed against weaker sections in the State.
